I’ve been dealing with a lot of family shit, then I have class projects I haven’t even started because of family shit, but I think I’m caught up on what’s happening on here finally. I want to say something about it because I’m livid when I just scanned through it again.
Don’t get me wrong — of course white people whining about being upset at PoC’s anger, which is usually a response to white supremacy and racism, is silly, immature, and further proves the point of how white people’s feelings > PoC’s lives. Fortunately, if they unlearn their own racism, white people can grow out of it.
However, to even be upset at stuff somebody else says, you would at the very least have to be human first.
This Rachel monster who made rape threats to Riley is not human. They weren’t just “upset” with Riley — they’re just not human. Period. There’s no reasoning or excusing her behavior. AT ALL. Personally, I don’t even want to try to figure out what the fuck goes on in the heads of people like that.
I’m also doubting Tumblr support’s humanity for being so slow to respond to it. Then, there’s the people telling Riley and their followers to “get over it” and/or defending this monster who’s humanity is questionable, too.
Don’t think I’m saying 1900fuckoff/21fatstreet and their defenders and condoners aren’t human beings — I’m not spreading the problematic idea that people who do disgusting things like this can’t be human beings (in fact, it can be your friend, your boss, whoever. Soulless fuckers can wear a lot of masks. It’s easier and feels more comfortable to wear a mask when you’re soulless).
They do have the capacity to think and feel, but they don’t have the ability or willingness. They’re not human. They’re not being human.
No one, and I mean NO ONE, no matter what they do or say (even including that Rachel bitch) deserves that sort of treatment. NO ONE deserves to have explicit rape threats thrown at them. IDGAF what they’ve done or said.
But PoC go through it every day. And not only on Tumblr, but everywhere. And the threats don’t have to be as overt as that Rachel bitch’s was. And it doesn’t matter how we act — inhumane assholes like Rachel attack PoC, and white society protects the inhumane asshole instead of holding them accountable for their actions while victim-blaming PoC for not responding well. To white society, “justice” usually means, “whatever keeps white people on top and gets PoC to shut up.” The internet can be a place where we could feel a little safe, if just for a while, to be ourselves, but Tumblr is actually having a hand in making it unsafe. More on that in a minute.
It’s a sick way to intimidate somebody into silence. A very fucking sick way. You can tell Riley to STFU (and I’ll join them in lulz), but making threats like this is SICK. It’s straight-up sociopathic behavior (and I don’t want to hear any fucking derails about how I’m being “ableist”).
And everybody who condoned, encouraged, dismissed, and shrugged it off are a part of it and should be held accountable.
You’re not human. And people like Rachel in particular can probably never, ever redeem themselves.
And they’re not jokes. Not at all. If anybody laughed at anything Riley was put through, then clearly your true character is showing, and for the safety of society, I suggest you remove yourself from it. Permanently. They have REAL effects, despite how serious the person making the threats are. And that’s why Rachel kept doing it — she knew the effects. She knew what she was doing and saying.
I saw the monster’s blogs were deleted, but make no mistake — this isn’t an isolated incident. It happens all the time, and society normalizes it. This is how racism and rape culture intersect and are upheld. If you followed what Riley went through, you just witnessed it. If you didn’t see it, read what happened again (I have the post on my blog). And it has very real, adverse effects on PoC. That’s why people do it.
Y’all are not human, and I treat you as such. Whenever I see another person having threats like this shoved in their face, I don’t give a shit about how “upset” you were. I don’t give a shit about how you feel. You can’t have any real feelings if you act like that. I won’t care. Whenever I see that shit, I’ll treat you like the soulless monsters you are.
As for Tumblr, I saw they deleted Rachel’s blogs. Took them forever though. But there are a lot of blogs that haven’t been deleted, and a lot of users that have never been suspended.
I never really had the illusion that Tumblr was a safe place, but it’s more than just unsafe where an occasional asshole ruins discussions — Tumblr support condones, protects, and defends this sort of behavior. They condone, protect, and defend threats of murder and rape of PoC. They are threats that can and DO turn into action outside of the internet, in real life. And Tumblr condones, protects, and supports it.
And I’m not overreacting at all when I say this. Despite the bold, I said the above sentences in a calm voice when I typed it out.
They condone it by ignoring the reports while simultaneously threatening to shut anybody down who endure shit like this all the time and respond angrily over it. Their ToS is just full of nice words to appease marginalized people who’ve complained a lot about being attacked on their site.
Then they protect and defend it by calling it all “freedom of speech.” For one thing, Tumblr, you are not the government. We know that. We’re not even asking you to arrest people, though threatening and stalking people like this can get you arrested (if you threaten a white person). All we’re asking is to remove people who make threats of rape and murder towards others, saying they’ll do it to the other person, while dehumanizing them with racial slurs. That’s not a lot to ask for. And second of all, “freedom of speech” doesn’t even protect threats.
And l feel like I need to make a note of this because people like to make this excuse: If you’re about to point out that we tell white people who threaten our emotional, mental, and even physical safety to go jump off cliffs, that is NOT a threat. It’s not even classified as a threat. It is NO WHERE near saying that you’re planning to do bodily harm on somebody else, threatening them repeatedly, and stalking their personal spaces so that you can threaten them. When I say that, I want people who are doing harm to me to get away from me and stop doing me harm, and I usually block them afterwards. In the end, I could handle white people telling me to go jump off a cliff — that’s why I say it to them. I’ve heard worse, and usually, white people say and do worse.
If you still want to argue about it, then I guess you should just it as a joke. But I encourage you to read again where I say NO ONE deserves to be threatened like Riley was, no matter what they do or say, and no matter if they’re making the threats themselves. Not even that soulless monster Rachel deserves it.
You’re not human. Not at all. You’re not being human at all, even though you are human beings.
